“Every man has three faces: the face that the world sees, the face that his loved ones see, and the face that only he sees. – Japanese Proverb”
I confess; I am a geek, an unabashed old-school comic fangirl. I grew up in the 1980s reading Marvel and DC Comics superhero stories. I stopped reading and collecting in the 1990s, but have collected the movies as they have become available on DVD. It is in this capacity that I respond to the latest recreations of the superhero mythos, whether on television, film, or print. The three most instantly recognizable superheroes are: Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. They are also excellent examples of points on a continuum of dual identity, with Superman and Batman as the extremes and Spiderman as the central point. The superhero’s struggle with balancing different aspects of his life and identity is the same struggle we face in our own lives, writ large.
Men in Tights
Peter Parker AKA Spiderman, Bruce Wayne AKA Batman, and Clark Kent AKA Superman/ Kal El of Krypton cover three wide points on the superhero identity continuum. Superman is Clark Kent minus his assumed cover story, with an overemphasis on the traits he hides behind the glasses. Batman is a trained, driven, narrow-focused multi-talented vigilante genius. Bruce Wayne is a lie, a cover story with a birth certificate, the wealth needed to fund the Bat, and a deep, dark secret: Bruce Wayne really does hate the Batman (it’s not just a lie to distract those who get too close) because the other stole his life and his purpose, sure as criminals stole his parents and ideals. Spiderman is Peter Parker’s burden of guilt coupled with his snarky juvenile fantasies. So, in the middle you have Spiderman who is a burden and secret for Peter Parker (but not really another identity, simply a release and means to reveal hidden aspects of his personality – much the same as actors when they play their parts). On one end you have Batman, for whom Bruce Wayne is the source of his power, a cover story and an ATM. On the other end is Superman, who actually has two personas, each with its own history, verity, and meaning. He is both Kal El, last son of Krypton (who feels abandoned and bereft of his parents, heritage, culture and fears losing his adopted world and becoming again the worst kind of orphan) and Clark Kent, son of Jonathan and Martha Kent (who struggles with secrets, but has friends, emotional ties, lunch dates, and other things denied the Man of Steel, things he needs in order to belong).
Kal El was raised as Clark Kent. He could not simply assume another identity any easier than you or I could. Bruce Wayne is not as necessary to Batman, but cannot be easily thrown away without serious repercussions, not least of which the fact that Bruce’s grief and rage is the fuel is that sustains the Bat. Peter Parker cannot simply walk away from his alter ego, but his lack of emotional attachment to the persona has allowed him to make several attempts to retire; duty and guilt bring him back to the costume.
The costume and the codename are disguises to delineate the difference between their everyday lives and the special duty. Peter Parker was an average high school student bitten by a radioactive spider, giving him superpowers. He designed his own costume to reflect the source of his powers; he didn’t give it a lot of thought, it simply needed to conceal his face and cover his body. Batman designed his costume for the dual purposes of practicality and psychology. On a practical note, the costume is designed to carry anything he thinks he might need when wearing it. The psychology comes into play in the dark colors and the bat symbol. “Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot,” he says often in print. Bruce Wayne, the man who wears the Batman costume, was scared by a chamber filled with bats soon after the murder of his parents; to him, there are few things scarier than bats. Superman, however, is different. His ‘costume’ is made from his old baby blankets (by the way, how can a grown man make a full costume out of a set of blankets made for an infant?). His code name is closely tied to his birth name (Kal El of Krypton). He does not become Superman, he is Superman when he wakes up in the morning; he must become Clark Kent.
They say that clothes make the man. What I wear when I am planning to stay home and not see anyone is quite different from what I wear to church. I even feel different in various types of clothes. I have a leather jacket from high school; when I wear it, I feel nostalgic and tough. Clothing is even divided into categories that name the role it is made to suit: business wear, casual wear, active wear, and formal wear.
The face the world sees
The Clark Kent seen by the world at large, in all of his ‘weaknesses’ is a deliberate lie, carefully constructed by Jonathan and Martha Kent, inexpertly and awkwardly carried out by their minor son, Clark Kent. They made sure he did nothing to call attention to his differences. He grew taller than ordinary people – his parents taught him to slouch at all times. He was faster, stronger, more agile; the Kents kept him away from competitive sports and taught him to fake clumsiness. Superboy wanted to save the day; Clark Kent needed a reason to never be on-site at any of these events. The struggle between who he (Clark Kent) wants to be and who he has to be in order to conceal his dual identity is part of what makes his story so interesting.
One reason Superman and Batman are my favorite superheroes is that struggle with necessity. Clark has to appear weak and cowardly, so that no one questions his absence from disaster scenes, despite the fact that as a reporter he should be covering the story as it breaks. Bruce Wayne must appear to be a drunken dilettante with no more on his mind than the next supermodel or people might be inclined to wonder how he spends his time and why he seems so tired. Both of them have had to maintain this pervasive fiction for most of their lives, Clark because he has had to hide his abilities and Bruce because he was planning revenge and needed to cover his tracks. Peter Parker remains much the same, but faces consequences for not being able to juggle the workload of photographer, college student, and superhero; to the world, he appears shiftless and unreliable.
Superman gets the best press. Batman is considered a dangerous vigilante and Spiderman a chaotic menace. Superman experiences some of the drawbacks of celebrity, in that many rescue missions become photo ops and many people insist on making a connection with him, but rarely wish to look beyond the powers to the person. Batman has personal contacts that have become friends, but he maintains a distance in order to do the duty more efficiently. Spiderman works alone, in order to reduce the risk to his loved ones.
The only one who would be unable to lead a (relatively) normal life if his secret was revealed is Superman. Bruce Wayne would face criminal charges, but could conceivably rebuild some form of meaningful purpose-driven life, possibly as a private investigator. Peter Parker could join a team, live at the team headquarters, and balance his various responsibilities better now that he no longer had to lie. His biggest problem would be villains targeting his family, but he worries about that now. Clark, however, could not show up at work in his suit or the costume, with or without the glasses, and have people treat him in any way remotely normal. In one of the 1980s guest author books, Superman’s secret is revealed to the world. Jimmy complains to his girlfriend that he misses Clark. She asks Jimmy what he would say if he saw Clark right this minute; without thinking, he replies, “Hi Superman.” Even Clark’s closest loved ones (not including his parents) all seem to like Superman better than Clark. Clark, as a person, would be ignored in favor of the icon Superman.
I don’t know how often someone has asked me how I am and I have answered, ‘fine, thank you.’ Even if I was in considerable pain that is what I would say because my mother and every other genteel southern lady in my family made sure I understood that I must always be polite. My great-grandmother once tried to serve me tea the day she got home from the hospital after having heart surgery because I was in her home. My sister once went twenty-eight hours without eating because she worked a swing shift with no dinner break and had back to back visits from friends when she got home. She couldn’t eat while she had company because she didn’t have enough food to offer any to her guests. I was taught that the person we show the world should be the person we want to be.
The face his loved ones see
Superman and Batman have had consequences to deal with as a direct result of how they constructed their alter egos. (In the 1980s comics) Clark was viewed by most of his friends with a certain amount of amused contempt. In one instance, Superman was kidnapped and he needed a reason why Clark never contacted anyone during that time. He told them he had an inner ear infection and hid out in his apartment with his phone unplugged to avoid pain; no one questioned the excuse – of course Clark would do anything to avoid pain. Superman is in some ways a caricature, an exaggeration of all of the traits Clark must keep hidden. Bruce is nearly as much of a caricature, since most of the traits that make up his actual self are in custody of the Batman persona. In many short stories written by guest authors in the 80s and 90s, Bruce has been the subject of an intervention by close friends who perceive him as wasting his tremendous potential and drinking his life away.
Clark has to hear a lot of complaints from the people in his life. He chose a profession that gave him instant access to information about crimes, disasters, and other ‘jobs for Superman’, yet he has a record of frequent absenteeism and other unprofessional behavior. Still, he is able (much like Peter Parker) to cut corners in order to meet deadlines. (Clark creates his copy at super speed and Peter sets up a camera to take photographs of Spiderman in action.) Bruce must suffer the snide remarks whenever he misses a board meeting due to a Batman emergency; the drinking makes a handy all-purpose alibi.
Clark and Bruce are restricted by the nature of their secrets. They cannot share the most important parts of themselves with people because criminals could figure out their secrets and use their weaknesses against them. So, they may not be able to form many significant intimate relationships. That plays into a lot of fan fiction on the Internet, which pairs them with each other or other superheroes, as their colleagues would certainly understand the tremendous pressures in their lives.
I go out of my way to help others when I am out. By the time I get home, some days I hate people. Erik, my son, will ask me for something and I will snarl at him because I have used up all of my politeness. Home is where I don’t have to play fair. I do apologize and give fair warning when I am in a mood. Erik knows to ask for favors the next day because I am likely to feel a little guilty at that point. Friends and family know your flaws and love you anyway; they are living proof of grace.
The face that only he sees
The costumed duty and the civilian duty are different roles; we all have different roles to play, that require different actions, words, and attitudes. What about the other aspects of their lives? Clark Kent (according to DC Comics, the text of the Superman movies, and every television series) loves to spend time with his friends and has a genuine affection for people in general. This quality is evident with or without the glasses, so would this aspect of his nature that is shared by both personas be considered only half-real? Bruce Wayne spends a good deal of his time micromanaging employees of Wayne Enterprises and Gotham City’s vigilante population; this man is a control freak no matter what he wears. Peter Parker doesn’t lose his ‘worry gene’ when he slips into costume; Spiderman simply deals with his anxiety by spouting wisecracks, while Peter whines and sulks.
Peter Parker has shown himself to be a man in a mask. In the movies and the comic books, he has removed his mask easily when needed. In Spiderman 2, Peter loses his mask, revealing his identity to Mary Jane Watson, his true love. Even as he is holding up a metal structure that was about to fall on her, Peter addresses her in his own shy tones, not Spiderman’s smart alec manner. Bruce Wayne has revealed in subtle ways the conflict between the two halves of his persona. In an early issue of “Batman and the Outsiders,” the team finds out Batman’s secret identity. One of them (the empath, who can feel the emotions of others) sputters, “But Bruce Wayne hates the Batman,” then covers her mouth with her hand as she realizes what that means. In episode seven of “Batman Beyond,” after being hospitalized by an encounter with a villain shooting destructive sound waves, Bruce starts hearing voices telling him to kill himself. At the end of the episode Terry McGinnis (the next Batman) asks Bruce how he knew that the ‘voices’ came from an outside source. Wayne said the voices called him Bruce, something he never called himself. McGinnis reminds him that Terry is Batman now, not Bruce; Bruce says, “Tell that to my subconscious.” Clark Kent looks in the mirror and sees himself, an adoptee with two identities that belong to him. I married an adoptee, so I understand the dichotomy of two identities in one a little better than I did when I first started reading about the Man of Steel. Adoptees who remember their original family tend to be ‘more royalist than the king;’ i.e., intensely devoted to the new family, who can do no wrong, because they never forget that they can lose this family like they lost the first one.
Clark Kent dons his costume as an act of love and devotion. Superman loves humanity with the fervor of one who has suffered great loss; he leans toward the kind of idealism one finds in bereaved widowers discussing the institution of marriage. Spiderman complicates Peter’s life, but is a necessary complication. Batman is Bruce’s admittedly extreme way of coping with his childhood trauma, an obsession reluctantly supported by his butler and confidante, Alfred Pennyworth. All three of these heroes need two separate identities in order to function as they have chosen.
My role as Erik’s mother is a vocation born of love; I wouldn’t change it if I could. College complicates my life, but it is a necessary complication and I reap the benefits. Writing fiction is my extreme way of coping with a world that seems, at times, too loud, too harsh, and too cruel. No role can be given up without pain and loss; each part allows me to express a vital part of my self. I need the good opinion of my friends. I need the support of my family. They enable me to live my life and express my identity the way I have chosen.
Who am I? Who are you? There is no simple answer.
